Tootsie Finds Its Broadway Home: Opening Date Announced

David Yazbek, coming off his Tony-win for Best Score for this season’s Best Musical winner The Band’s Visit, is readying his next offering for the Broadway stage. Tootsie, based on the popular 1982 comedy of the same name, will begin previews at the Marquis Theatre on March 29, 2019, toward an April 23 opening. Prior to that, Tootsie will have a pre-Broadway engagement at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre.

Joining Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) in imagining Tootsie for the musical stage will be book writer Robert Horn (Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance; 13), with direction provided by Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century) and choreography by Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas). The design team includes scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designer Donald Holder, and sound designer Brian Ronan.

“Tootsie tells the story of a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until an audacious, desperate stunt lands him the role of a lifetime.” The film version starred Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Bill Murray, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, and Geena Davis. Directed by Sydney Pollack, Tootsie features a screenplay by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart.

Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals, The Disney Song Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Television Theme Songs. He maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.